E 



'i'ii- 



CAMP JACKSON: ITS HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE. 



O R ^V T 1 O N 



CHARLES Dr P R AKE, 



DELIVEKED IN THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS, MAY 11, 1H03, 

ON THB • \ 

ANNIVERSARY OF THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED HIS 

Reply to the Missouri Republicaifs Attack 

UPON HIM, ON ACCOUNT OF THAT ORATION. 



feA I N 1 !-<.> li IS: 
PRINTED AT THE MISSOURI DEMOCRAT OFFICE. 

1863. 



r'7 



,-3/ 



ORA.TIO]lSr. 



Great events make anniversaries, and all civ- 
ilized peoples observe and commemorate them. 
To St. Louis, now in the hundredth year of its 
existence, no day has become more memorable 
than tJie tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-one; when was witnessed by her citizens, 
on this spot, within her own corporate limits, 
the first collision between our noble Fnion, and 
those recreant State authorities, which desired 
and intended to wrest Missouri by violence 
from the Daioa's embrace. This generation ia 
St. Louis will not forget that day. The sieces 
siouists of St. Louis will remember it as a day 
that suddenly nipped the treason ot their lead- 
ers in the bud ; and her patriots will cherish io 
as the day that rescued them and Missouri from 
the grasp of traitors, which, once fixed upon 
her, might not to this hour have been 
thrown off. History, too, will assign 
that day a position of prime importance 
in the course of events succeedmg the fall of 
Sumter; for had the desigus wQieh ciused the 
assemblage of citizen-soldiery -at Camp Jriclisou 
been accomplished, who can estimate the exteut 
of the injury to the Uuioa cause in Mis 
souri, and ttiroughout this great Central Vaile>? 
God only knovvs wUether tbe whole course of the 
dread cooflict wbich has now been waged for 
more than two years, mighr. not have been 
changed, disastrou-^ly to our country. Let u^ 
then reniier devour. thanUi to dim, tor the day 
itself, and for the privilege of meeting here in 
peace to commemorate it! 

You will not, my friends, tail to remember the 
wild excitemeut in our city and state, which fol- 
lowed the capture of Camp Jackson, and the use 
which was, only too successfully, made of that 
event, to inflame disloyalty and rebellion 
through all the borders of Missouri. To 
have at^euded to what was then said 
and written in denuaci=»tion of the capture, 
one would have thought that such an outrage 
as the world had not bttore known, bad beeo 
perpetrated upon an innocent body of citizen 
soldiers, lawfully convened for a laudable pur- 
pose; and that those who composed the captur- 
ing force were demons in human shape, worihy 
only of execration in time, ana of damnation in 
eternity; to the latter of which Missouri traitors 
would gladly and quickly have consigned them 
— if they could ! 

As to the character of the soldiery mustered at 
Camp Jackson, it is not just or true to class 
them all aa traitors, orsecesaioaists, or sympa- 1 



thizers with secession. While it is impossible to 
say at this time, even if it could ever have been 
said, who of the officers and men composing the 
encampment were loyal to the flag which floated 
over them, and who were not, it is, I doubt not, 
strictly true that many were there who were 
loydl; who were uoaware of the infamous de- 
signs of those who orderei their assemohng ; 
aad who would have beeu deeply shociied, had 
they beea lea torth to do the work woica the 
S.ate authorities purposed shouid be dyne. Of 
them, as they were prior lo, aud upon the d^y 
of, the capture of Camp Jacuson — not as many of 
them after waio 8 became — 1 would use u« other 
words than those ot pity for toe uatoriuaate 
I asiociaiiou which made ttiem the victims of 
cuuuing aud unsortipulous traitors. But ot 
those there who Knew toe design of toe eucamp- 
meut, aud lent themselves to the first orgauiz^^d 
attempt to airay \i,asouri agaiust tQ-i glorious 
flig under which ibey were boru, and by lue pio- 
lectiju 01 wbiuh thi-y had iw^d and prospeiea, 
it iB enough to say, to it mi»re ueviiion iraUors 
uever lived; aud i,Uat such oi ihrin as ha-e uoo 
altead.y fail^u iu iheiebd rauKs, b> Daiou ball 
or bayouet, i-LOUid oe tUauKrul to tuieir dying 
hour that the surrender of Camp JaCinou oaved 
them theu from tue traitor's iguooiiuious taie, 
if, iiiUeed, their being saved Saouid be agr-Uud 
of thauktuluess in tnem, or anyooay else Oa 
earth. [ippUuse.] 

It is important, my frieods, to put ou record, 
80 tar as an addresn iti^e tutscau aocumpiisu it, 
the true Char aoter oi that iii-stu red o^mp, aud 
of toe men who planned and execaoed ub cap 
ture. L)iligt-ut tfforta have been made lo cover 
up tae truth aoout it, aud to transmit its history 
to the <utu(e in a c uud. Ooe aim ot this dis- 
course will be to set forth the simple truih, in 
conuected form, that whosoever may hear or 
read it. may know assuredly that t le suppres- 
sion of Ctmp JacKsou wa-t not oaiy autoorzed 
by the dicratea ot self-preservation, but was aa 
act of military sagacity aud heroism, which will 
forever staud out promiuently iu the history of 
this lebellion. [Applause ] In carryiug out 
this purpose, it will be necessary to present 
documents ot that period, at a somewhat greater 
length than is usu il on such an occasion ; &ut I 
do not apprehend that you will bestow grudg- 
ingly the time aud attention which may be re- 
quisite to a clear array of the facta %i this ia- 
teresting history. 



That Camp Jackson may not be without a 
hearing at the bar of public opinion, present 
and future, 1 will recall and record the larger 
part of an editorial article which appeared in 
the c alumna of the Missouri Jiepvllican , oxi. the 
13th of May, 1861, three days after that of t^e 
capture, and which bears evident marks of care- 
ful and deliberate preparation. Whatever may 
have been the impression of our citizens con- 
cerniBg it at the time, it has now, as an item of 
history, a peculiar interest. It is as follows : 

" Njw that there ie qiiet in the city— that the work 
of ' blood-letting ' has ceased for the prescn* — that 
the grave has opened to receive the dead men, 
women, and children ruthlessly slaughliered at Camp 
Jackson on Friday afternoon last — at a time when, 
possibly, this sacrillcu is doemed sufficient to impre?* 
the people of St. LouIb, and of the State, and the 
Union with a kuowL-dge of the energy and the 
power which is to t)e exerted over all of us— it may 
be permitted to us, before martial law is proclaimed, 
and, it may be, a censorship of the press establishei, 
to review the transactions of the last few days in St. 
Louie . We propose to confine ourselves to the events 
connected with the attack upon, and the surrender 
of Camp JiCkson, and the murder of onoflending 
men, wom-n, and children, which fcllowedtha event. 

" Camp J.IC ;son was e8taMit<hed, as every ci'.izen 
of Missouri knows, in strict obodience to the laws 
of thin St ite. A similar encampmeit, a year a?o, 
excited no remark, except as evidence of a desire on 
the part of ih^ volunteers to perfect themselves in a 
eyetirm of militar taciics ■which while it rendered 
th m efficient in servire al^^o contributed to their 
health, a.'a.W.oxM&i esprit da corps, which is alwiys 
neceseary to success. There is no evidence to show- 
that there waa any obj ;ct beyond these legitimate rj- 
snlts in contemplation, when ih3 order was given for 
the fiimation of Camp Jackson. Every order, from 
Ih )se of the Commmder-iii-chief,dowu to tbat of each 
of the companies, has been made public, and not one 
of them contained the most rcm-ite allusion to any 
ot ler pnr^joae than that of perfection «f military dis- 
cipline, made necussary on the pirt of Missouri, a'^ 
this inie, by the act that all he other S a e» in the 
Union were aiming, organizing, and disciplining the 
mili ia of :heir re-pectivc S.ates. With no oth'isr o^- 
) -ct in view, Camp .Jackson w is estahli-^hed as a school 
of discipline and exercise, under the laws of the S aie. 
The op ^nlng was aiisplc'ons. The flag of the Uuiied 
States fl E'ed ov jr the entire camp No o; her national 
fligwts p rmltttd to be displayed The men who 
formed th -en -amp nent,';ach and all of them, h d tikec 
the oa h to rupportthe Constitunon oi the United 
States and of th a State. There was no qnalitlcation or 
mental re?ervation. For at Uast fonrdayseve ything 
went on pleasaiity at the camp; thonsands ff per- 
sons, men, women, and children, flocking thither to 
view the military field, and to interchange cviltties 
with those who occup ed it. But it would setm 
that malignant spirits bad di tL>rmined that this state 
of thiners should not be coBtiiiued and that Camp 
j4Ck8onmu8t be attacked, and the citizen- aoldiery 
taken prisoners of war, ne matter whii the prettX", 
misht be. Rumors of this kind got wing on Wedaea- 



day, but they did not fix ihemse'ves on the public 
mind with any distinctness. All knew that the city 
\iai loyal toihe Union, and that this had been shown 
ii many ways. Sti 1 the rumors continued to obtain 
circulation, and next day they were mo-e p-oliflc than 
ev^'r. On Friday morning Gener il Frost, in command 
of his encimpment, felt it his duty lo address the 
following note to Captain Lyon, in command of the 
Arsenal : 

'Headquarters. Camp Jackson. 1 
Missouri Militia, May 10, 1861. / 
' Capt. K. Lyon, commanding Unittd States troops in and about 

St. Louit Arsenal. 

'Sir : I am continually in receipt of information that 
you contemplate an attack upon my camp, whilst I under- 
stand that y ju are impres.sed "tvith the idea that an attack 
upon the Arsenal and United States troops 
is intended on the part of the militia of 
Missouri. I am greatly at a great loss to know what 
could justify yon in attacking citizens (f the United 
States who are in the lawful performance of duties de- 
volving upon them under the Constitntion, In organizing 
and instructing the militia of the State in obedience to 
her laws, and therefore have been disposed to doubt the 
correctness of the information I have received. I would 
be glad to know from yon personally whether there is any 
truth in the statements that are constantly peured into 
my ears. 

'So far as regards any hostility being intended towards 
the United States, or its property or representatives, by 
any portion of my command, or, as far as I can learn, (and 
I think I am fully informed), of any other part of the State 
forces, I can say positively that the idea has never been 
entertained. On the contrary, prior to your taking com- 
mand of the Arsenal, I proflered to Major Bell, then In 
command of the very few tro ips constituting its guard, 
the services of myself and all my "ommand, and, if neces- 
sary, the whole power of the State, to protect the United 
States in the full possession of all her property. Upon 
Gen. HarHCy's taking command of this department, 
I male the fame nroflfer of services to him, and 
anfiorized his Adjutant-General, Cap ain Williams, to 
communicate the fact that such had been djne, to the War 
D'.'partmont. 1 have had no occasion since to change any 
of the views I entertained at that lime, neither of my own 
volition, nor throtigh orders of my constitutional com- 
mander. I trust that after this explicit Btatement we may 
be ai)le, by fully understanding each other, to keep far 
from our borders tine misfortunes whlcn so unfortunately 
aflflict our common country. 

' Tals communication will be handed to you by Colonel 
Bowen, my Chief of Stafi. who will be able to explain any- 
thing not fully set forth In the foregoing. 

' I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient aervont, 
•Brig. Gen. D. M FROST, 
' Commanding Camp Jackson, M. V. M.' 

" Captain Lyon refused to receive this note. If he 
ha1 done so, it would have djsrro ed the programme 
already resolved upon, and which look'^d to the cap- 
ture of Camp Jackson, and the degr idation of citi- 
z m* as loyal to the flxg of the Union, as respectable 
In every sense as brave and chlvalnc as Capt. Lyon, 
or any one of his advisers. They were to be dis- 
gr.iC-d, 1h order to st!ike terror into the people of the 
S atj ; and 'hefla?of the Uni n which wav'^d over 
Camp Jackson was to be struck in tho presence of 
men. nine-tenths o( whom were born nnd. r a foreign 
flag, and had grown up arknowledgiag alleelance to 
the worst and most despotic Goveruments of Europe." 

Such is the contemporaneous vindication of 
Camp Jackson. It is probably all that could 



have been said ia its defense. The reader of it, 
with no other knowledge of the current history 
of the period, would not hesitate to condemn 
those " malignant spirits" who planned and ex- 
ecuted " the degradation of citizens as loyal to 
the flag of the Union, as respectable in every 
sense, as brave anl chivalric, as Captain Lyon, 
or any one of his advisers." But, however the 
writer of that defense may, at the time, have be- 
lieved his statements to be true,— which to me, 1 
confess, seems very difficult, in view of the 
events which preceded the formation of that 
camp, — subsequent disclosures have established, 
beyond the possibility of question, that Camn 
Jackson was a treasonable assemblage, [ap- 
plause, "That's so."] which required only some 
increase of strength to have been marched forth 
to subject Missouri to thedomination of traitors, 
and whirl her off into the destroying abyss of 
secession. 

Let us briefly glance at the march of events in 
Missouri preceding Camp Jackson. 

On the 20th day of December, 1860, South Caro- 
lina—may one of the results of this war be, that 
that name be blotted out, and some other given 
to the territory it represents !— [tremendous ap- 
^plause]— on that day South Carolina declared 
her secession from the Union, the very forma- 
tion of which the great historian of the United 
States, in a sep irate chapter, attributes directly 
to her. As she started on her fiery career, she 
flung abroai a blazing invitation to the peo- 
ple of the slave-holding States, to join her in 
forming a Confederacy of such States. 

Oa the 30ih day of December, 1860, the Legis- 
lature of Missouri met in regular session. Up 
to that day no response, so far as I now remem- 
ber, had been heard in this State to South Caro- 
lina's demoniac cry. 

The nex. day, however, the proposition was 
distinctly presented, editorially, in :lie same 
public journal [.jroms for the Ji','ubli<.an] 
from which I have quoted the apology for Camp 
Jackson, that, in a certiin contingency. Mi asouri 
should follow South Carolina's damning lead. 
Let us, as a part of the history of the time, 
record its words, addressed to the Legislature 
then ju^t convened. They are as follows : 

" We assume as a fact beyond dispute, that there la no 
considerable body of men in this State who desire the 
dissolution of the Union, for the causes which have up to 
this time been presented to the country. We maintain 
now, as we have always maintained, that [the people of] 
the Northern States have greatly wronged those of the 
slave States, and that those wrongs must be redressed 
before there can be any settlement of the Issues 
between them— any restoration of those kindly feelings 
which ought to exist between brethren of the same p> lit- 
ical family. And hence it becomes the dutv of the one 
party to ponder well upon the grievances of which they 
have cause of complaint, to submit them to the party 
which has oppressed them, snd if they reject tbem, or 



treat them with contempt, tbeucelurward they will be 
Justified in complete alienation from them. Thisposition 
being admitted, it will be the duty of the Legislature of 
Missouri, we humbly submit, to take such steps as 
will, iu the first place, secure the co-operation 
of the slave Slates in some definite plan of ac- 
tion, and then to carry out resolutely whatever 
may be agreed npjn. As the first movement of 
this political drama, it would well comport with the po- 
sition of Missouri to pass an act, at an early day of the 
session, calling a Convention of commissioners from all 
the slave States in the Union, at Baltimore, to consider 
and decide npon the masters in controversy, and to state 
explicitly the grievances and aggressions of the North, to 
tnhich such States will no longer tvbmit. The commiSFion 
need not be a large one, say one from each electoral dis- 
trict, to be appointed by the Governor. His own sense of 
the responsibility of his position will dictate to him the 
propriety of selecting the ablest and pnrest men in the 
State— and he will do it. In the same aat let provision 
be made for a State Convention to be elected, and as- 
sembled on the call of the Governor, to consider such con- 
stitutional amendments as may be rroposed by Congress 
for the settlement of all these difficulties ; or, if all c in- 
stitutional and patriotic expedients should be exhausted 
before the ith of March next, THEN TO DECLARE 
A SEPARATION FROM THE STATES OF THE 

Confederacy, a commission, such as we have 
suggested, selected for their wisdom, their regard 
for the rights of the States, so wantonly trifled with and 
invaded, coming from States representing the largest pop- 
ulation and the most wealth, and which have 8uff>»red 
most from the aggressions of the North— would not fail to 
agree upon the propo itions to be made to the adverse 
party, and there is every reason to believe that such prop- 
ositions would be agreed to If th'^i should not, then the al- 
ternative woxdd remain, and thefifteen States would bi: Justified 
in th' ryes of the world in DECLARING SEPARATION FOR- 
EVER " 

Three days after the publication of these 
words, Claiborne F. Jacksom was installed 
Governor of Missouri, and in his Inaugural Ad- 
dress said : 

"The destiny of the slave-holding States of this Union 
is one and the same. So long as a S'ate continues to main- 
tain shivery within her limits, it is impossible to sfparate her 
fate from that of her sister States who hare the same social mr- 
ganlzntion. * * * Missouri will not be found to shrink 
from the duty which her potition npon the border Im- 
po.ses; her honor, her lnter»st3, and her sympathies point 
alike In one direction, and determine her t» stand by the 
South." 

On the 21st of January, 1861, the Legislature 
of Missouri passed an act providing for the elec- 
tion, by the people, of delegates to a State Con- 
vention; and such delegates were elected, in 
pursuance thereof, on the following IS'.h of Feb- 
ruary, and the body convened on the 28 ,h of that 
month. Its composition sorely disappointed 
and vexed tbo traitors who, with diabolical in- 
tent, were plotting to drag Missouri into seces- 
sion. On the 19th day of March, alter mature 
deliberation, it gave a death-blow to all their 
hopes, by the adoption, with only one di!<8ent- 
ing voice, of the following feeble, but effectual, 
expression of adhesion to the Union : 

"Resolved, That at present there is no adequate cause to 
Impel Missouri to dissolve her connection with the Fed- 



eral Union; bnt on the contrary she will labor for snch an 
adjnetment of existinfi troubles, as will secure the peace, 
as well as the rights and equality, ofall the States. 

Here was Buch a declaratioa of the direct will 
of the people of Missouri, as should have si- 
lenced her traitors, at least until the Convention 
should have found the time, hinted at in the re- 
solution, when there should be "adequate catise, 
to impel Missouri to dissolve her connection 
with the Federal Union." But with a seditious 
and treacherous Governor, Lieutenant Gover- 
nor, and Legislature, it was not difficult to 
carry forward those schemes of treason which led 
on to Camp Jackson, and to all the untold horrors 
which have fallen upon the people of Missouri, 
since tbe day Camp Jackson fell. A few more 
links and the chain will be complete. 

Sumter fell on the 14th of April, 1861. On the 
foHowiug day. President Lincoln issued a pro- 
clamation calling for 75,00.0 men to suppress 
the rebellion, which had opened its first batteries 
upon that ill-fated fortress; and on the sa-ue 
day the Secretary of War telegraphed to Gov 
ernor Jackson a requisition upon Missouri for 
four regiments of troops. 

Two days aftervrard that Governor replied to 
the Secretarv in these words : 

"Tourdi^palchof the 15th instant, makinna call on Mis- 
souri for tour rt-giments of m-n for immpdiate service 
has been received Th-re can be, I appreh- nd. n ■ dovibt 
but the»e men arc intended to form part of the Presi- 
dent's army to make war upon the people of the seceded 
States. Tour requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, uu- 
constitutional, andrevolutiMDary; in its object inhuman 
and diabolical, and cannot be complied with Not one 
man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any 
such unholy crusade." 

The public journal previously quoted from, 
laid before its readers this impudent and insur- 
rectionary dispatch of MiHsouri's rebel Governor, 
with the following introduction: 

" The Journal, of ye' teraay, published the following as 
the response of Governor Jackson to the demand of Mr. 
President Liucoln for four regiments of men to aid in 
subjugating the revoluuoi ary States. Nobody expected 
any other respuuie from bim. and the people of Missouri 
will indorse it. Toey may not approve of tlie early course 
of the Southern States, but they denounce and defy ths 
action of Mr. Liijcoln in proposing to call out 75 000 men 
for ihe purpose of coercing the seceded States of the 
Union. Whatever else may happen, he gets no men from 
the border Stales to carry on such a war." 

The standard of revolt was thus fairly raised 
on the soil of Missouri. Her Governor resolved 
that she sheuld " stand by the South, " though 
her people, in Convention, had solemnly resolved 
to stand by the Union. The issue.-which brought 
Buch deep disaster to that people, was made up, 
and had to be decided. He determi^ed to invoke 
the aid of the Legislature, elected in August, 
1858, and August, 1860, which he knew he could 
c»ntrol, agiinat the Convention elected in Feb- 
ruary, 1861, which he could not control. Five 
days after his contumacious reply to the 



Secretary of War, he issued his proclamation, 
requiring the Legislature to convene on the 2d 
of May, "for the purpose of enacting such laws, 
and adopting such measures as may be deemed 
necessary and proper for the more perfect or- 
ganization and equipment of the militia of this 
State, and to raise the money and such other 
means as may be required to place the State in 
a proper attitude of defense." And on the same 
day he issued a General Order, requiring the 
military companies throughout the State 
to go into camp on the 3d of May, 
and ordering the light battery then 
attached to the Southwest battalion, and one 
eompany of mounted riflemen, including all 
officers and soldiers belonging to the First Dis- 
trict (St. L,ouis county) to proceed forthwith to 
St. Louis, and report to General D. M. Frost for 
duty: all of which, in Governor Jackson's 
words, was " to attain a greater degree of effici- 
ency and perfection in organization and dis- 
cipline;" but in Governor Jackson's heart it 
was to sweep Missouii out of the Union, and in- 
to that bastard ab&rtion— the Southern Confed- 
eracy. [Applause.] Under this order Camp JdCk- 
son was formed, ihe day before that assigned 
for its formation, the Legislature met under the 
Governor's proclamation, and received from him 
a message, in which he denoULced the Presi- 
dent's action in calling out 75,000 men, as "un- 
constitutional and illegal," and proclaimed his 
treason in tbe following words : 

•■Tliegreaoandpitriotic Stite of Virginia, [laughter,] 
after having failed iu all hei effjris to re-adjust the Union, 
has, at la- 1, yielded in de^palr, and seceded from the o d 
Federal Union North Carolina. Tennessee, and Ark- 
ansas, it is believed, will rapidly follow io toe footsteps 
of Vi'rgiuia; and Kentucky is prof..uud y moved in this 
\ great question Our interests and our ^ympathies are 
identical wuh those of the slave-holding Staoeo, and ne- 
cessarily unite our destiny with theirs The similarity 
of our social and political iustitutious— our iudustrial in- 
terests—our sympathies, habits and tastes— our common 
origin aod territorial conlmuity, all concur in poiuliug 
out oUr duty In regard to the separation which is now tak- 
ing pUce between the States of ttie old Federal 
Uuion. In the mea time, it is. in my judgment, 
indispensable to our saieiy, that we fhould emulate 
the policy of all th« other States in arming our people, 
and placiug the State in a proper attitude of defense." 

Here, my friends, I close tne nisiorical sum- 
mary of events prectding the formation of Camp 
Jackson. If its recital has interested you as 
much as its investigation did me, 1 am not with- 
out hope of having contributed to the triumph 
of trutt) in regard to the period which has been 
reviewed. Before proceeding to other facts, 
allow me a word of comment. I am grievously 
mistaken, if the historical facts which have 
been presented do not wholly overthrow the 
main points in the vindication of Camp Jack- 
son, which 1 have just laid before you. 1 can- 
not agree with the writer of that vindication in 



the position that there was, when he wrote, " no 
evidence to show that there was any object be- 
yond these legitimate results (viz : improve- 
ment in military tactics, in health, and esprit 
du corps) in contemplation, when the order was 
given for the formation ot Camp Jackson." In 
my judgment, the open historical evidence was 
then conclusive, and remains to this day, and 
must forever remain, without aid from any other 
quarter, invincibly CQDclusive that there was an 
object in csntemplation beyond those ; and that 
that object was, to carry out in Missouri the 
same ferocious plan of compelling secession by 
armed force, which had been successfully prac- 
ticed already in some of the Southern States. I 
am willing to leave that point to the judgment 
of impartial history, upon ihe facts 1 have al- 
ready presented, without reference to any yet to 
be meationed. 

True, as stated in the defense, that "not one 
order contained tde most remote allusion to any 
other purpose than that of perfection of mili- 
tary discipline:" but who ever expected inchoate 
treason to advertise itself in military orders ? 
[Laughter and applause.] 

True, as stated there, that "the flag of the 
United Scates floated over the entire camp:" 
but it hung there, as it has since often been 
hung out by St. Louis Copperheads [lauijhter; 
"down with the Copperheadb!"] to conceal their 
venomous perfidy to their too forbearing Gov- 
ernment and country. May their remaining 
days in this city be "few and full of trouble I" 
[ Immeose applause, and " bully for the trouble. "] 
Trup, as stated there, that " no other national 
flag was per nitted to be displayed :" but was no 
other there, ready to be displayed, when the 
"proper moment" came, as you might probably 
now find hundreds of puch flags in secesh habi- 
tations in this city, prepared to be thrown to 
the hrecze " wJien Pricfi' a army c^mes ?" [Cries 
of *■ he can't «io it as long as there is a ' Dutch- 
man' in the city."] 

True, as stated there, that "the men who formed 
the encampment, each and all of them, had taken 
the oath to support the CoDstitution of the 
United States and of this State;" but what 
signifies a traitor's oath of loyaltv? Is he not 
next ofkin" to the father of lies?" ["Certainly."] 

But to proceed. Having shown the leading 
events which preceded the capture of Camp 
Jackson, let us now see what was in Camp 
Jackson. On this point I can do no better 
than present the ©flBcial language of General 
Haknby. He resumed command at St. Louis 
the day after the capture; and on the 14th of 
May issued a Proclamation to the People of 
Missouri, in which he used the following words: 



" In this connection T dpsire to direct attention to one 
subject, which no doubt will be made the pretext formore 
or less popular excitement. lailude to the recent transac- 
tions at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. It is notproperfor 
me to comment upon the oflicial conduct, of my prede- 
cessor in command of this Department, but it is rii;bt and 
proper for the people of Missouri to know that the main 
avenue of Camp Jackson, recently under command of 
General Frost, had the name ot Davis, and a principal 
street of the same camp that of Beauregard; that a 
body of men had been received into that camp by its c-m- 
mander, which had been notoriously organized in ihe in- 
terests of the secessionists, the men openly wearing the 
dress and badge distinguishing the army of the so-called 
Southern C"nfederacy. Ii, is also a notorious fact that a 
quantity of arms had been received into the camp, which 
were unlawfully taken fr^mthe United States arsenal at 
Baton Rouge, and surreptitiously passed up the river in 
boxes mamed marble. 

'Upon facts like ihese, and having in view wt at oc- 
curred ai Liberty, the people can draw their own infer- 
ences, and it cannot be difficult for any one to arrive at a 
correct conclusion as to the character and ultimate pur- 
pose of that encampme't No Governmetit in the world 
would be entitled to respect, that would tolerate for a mo- 
ment such openly treasonable preparations." 

True, fearless words ! uttered by a veteran sol- 
dier, who saw the treason that lurked in Camp 
Jackson, and did not shrink from exposing it, 
though the commander of that camp was his 
near family connection ! Is more needed to de- 
li oeate the real character of that encampment ? 
Not a word more : but the history is not yet 
complete. I must tax your time to present the 
fiual and blasting proot^ which, after the flight 
of Governor Jackson from our seat of govern- 
ment, was, by a most remarkable accident, 
saved from the burnt and smoking mass of pa- 
pers, which he committed to the flames, that the 
evidence of his treason, and that of his instru- 
ments throughout the State, might never ritee in 
judgment against them. 

You will remember the words of General 
Frost, addressed to Captain Lyon, in the letter 
written on the day of the capture, and embodied 
in the def-nse of Camp Jackson, previously pre- 
sented. Hear them again : 

" So far as regards any boftilitles being intended to- 
wards the United States, or its propfrty, er representa- 
tives, by a y portion "f my command, or, as fa' as I can 
learn, (and I think I am f a'ly informed.) of at y other part 
of the State forces, lean say positively that the idea hat never 
been entertained." 

It could hardly be believed that he who wrote 
thus on the 10th of May, had, on the 15th of the 
previous month, addressed a letter to Governor 
Jackson, such as I am about to read to you, and 
which is the document that escaped the flames 
at Jefferson City. 1 would not trespass upon 
your time by presenting it entire, but that I see 
no part of it that could well be omitted, and I 
apprehend there are many thousands of the peo- 
ple of Missouri who have never feen it ; for 
I believe I am right in saying that, though long 
siace given to the world, ii has never hten imb- 



lisheJ in the puhlic jovmal frc/m which the defense 
(J Camp Jackson was quoted. This is the letter : 
" St. Louis, Mo., April 15, 1861. 

" Bis Excellency C. F. Jackson, Goremor of ilisaouri : 

"SlH: Ton have doubtless observed by this morning's 
dispatches, that the President, bj- calling out seventy-five 
thousand of the militia of the diflfferent States into the 
service of his Government, proposes to inasgurate civil 
war on a comprehensive plan. 

" Under the circumstances, I have thought it not inap- 
propriate that I shou'd offer some enggestions to your Ex- 
cellency, in my capacity of commanding officer of the first 
military district. 

" Presuming that Mr. Lincoln will be advised by good 
military talent, he will doubtless regard this place as next 
in importance, in a strategetic point of view, to Charleston 
and Pensacola He will, therefore, retain at the Arsenal 
all of the troops now there, and augment it as soon as pos- 
hijle. The commanding ofllcrr of that place, as yon 
are perhaps aware, has strengthened his position 
by the erection of numerous batteries and earth- 
works. Yon are not, however, aware that he has 
recently put in position guns of a heavy calibre, to com- 
mand theapproaches to the city by the river, as well as 
heavy ten-inch mortars, with which he c-uld at any mo- 
ment bombard our town. 

" If, therefore, he is permitted go on strengthening his 
position, whilst the Government increases bit force, It 
will be bat a short time before he will have 'his town and 
the commi^rce of the Mississippi at his mercy. Ton will 
readily see how this complete po-session and control of 
our commercial metropolis might, and In all probability 
would, afri-et any future action that the State m ght other- 
wise feel disposed to take. 

" I fully appreciate the very delicate position occupied 
by your E.xcriipncy, and do not expect yon to take any action 
or do anything not legal and proper to be done under the 
circnmsiaices; but, nevertheless, would respectfully sug- 
gest the following as both legal and proper, viz: 

"1st. To call the Lfglslature together at once, for the 
pnrposeof placing the State in a condition to enable yon to 
suppress insur'ection or repel invasion. 

' 2d. To send an agent to the Governor of Louisiana, (or 
further, if necessary,) to asaertaln if mortars a id siege 
guns could be obtained from Baton Rouge, or other points. 

'•3d. To send an agent to Liberty, to see what is there, 
and put the people of that vicinity on their guard, to pre- 
vent Its being garrisoned, as several companies of II. S. 
troop> will beat Fort L»aveuworth, from Fort Kearney, 
in ten or fifteen days from this time. 

"4th. Publish a pnclamation to the people of the 
Slate, warning them that the President has acted Illegally 
in calling out troops, thus arrugatii c: to himself the war- 
making power; that he has illegally ordered the secret 
issue 1 1 iiblic arms (to the number of 5,000) to societies 
in the Sta'p, who have declared their intention to resist 
the constituted authorities whenever those authorities 
may ailopt a course distasteful to them; and fiat they are, 
ttierefore, by no means bound to give him aid or comfort 
luhis attempt to subjugate, by force of arms, a people 
who are still free ; but, on the contrary, that they should 
prepare thenibelves to maintain all their rights ai citizens 
of Missouri. 

"5ih. Authorize, or order, the commanding officer of 
the present military district, to form a mllitaiy camp of 
Instruction at or near the city of 8t. Louis, to muster 
military companies into the service of the State, to erect 
batteries, and do all things necessary and proper to be 
done to maintain the peace, iligni y, and sovereignty of the 
State. 

"6th. OriCT Colonel Bowen's whole conmiaml to pro- 
ceed at once to the said ' amp and report to the cuuimand- 
iDg officer for duty. 



" Doubtless, many things which ought to be done will 
occur to your Excellency which have not to me, and your 
Excellency may deem wl at I have suggested as improper 
or unnecessary. If so, 1 can only say, that I have been 
actuated solely by a sense of official duty in saying what I 
have, and will nost cheerfully acquiesce in whatever 
course your Excellency may lay down for my government. 

" I would not have presumed to have advised your Ex- 
cellency, but for the fact that you were kind enough to 
express a desire to censnlt with me upon these subjects 
on your recent visit to this city. 

•' I am, fclr, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
"DM FROST. 
" Brig. Gen. Com'g Isl Mil. Dis't of Missouri." 

Such was the programme sketched out by this 
Brigadier General of Missouri Militia — who, be 
it remembered, had " tal-en the oath !" — [laugh- 
ter]— to accomplish the infamous purpDse 
of forcing Missouri into rebellion, in open 
dt fiance of the solemn action of her 
Convention less than a month before he wrote ! 
It was carried out in nearly every item, save 
that of issuing a proclaaaation. The Legislat- 
ure was called together ; a messenger was sent 
southward for arms, whose presence there for 
that purpose was announced, on the 3d of May, in 
a Southern newspaper ; on the 20th of April the 
unguarded arsenal at Liberty, in Clay county, 
was delivered up, at the demand of citizens of 
that county ; a military camp of instruction — in 
treason !— Camp Jackson, was formed on the spot 
where we are now assembled; Col. Bowen with 
his command was there; military companies 
were mustered into the service of the State ; 
and time only was wanting to enable them "to 
erect batteries, and do all things necessary and 
proper t j -e done to maintain the peace, digni- 
ty, and sovereignty of the State :" that is, to 
maintain her peace by plunginir her into wai ; 
to stain her dignity with the blood of fratrici- 
dal conflict; and to prostitute her sovereignty 
to the destruction of that Union which alone 
gave her the least title to sovereignty ! 

The immediate oVject of intended attack in St. 
Louis was the Arsenal of the United States, then 
containing about sixty thousand stand of arms, 
with large accumulations of muuitions of 
war; which, once in traitorous hands, would 
have furnished to the then unarmed rebels of 
Missouri, the means of overpowering at every 
point all resistance to their desperate designs. 
In all the history of the rebellion there can be 
found no instance of more infatuated audacity. 
To form an encampjient within the very cor- 
porate limits of a city of one hundred and 
seventy thousand inhabitaats, — the commercial 
metropolis of a State which had pronounced its 
adherence to the Union, — with the design of em- 
ploying her own citizen-soldiery, armed with 
weapons partly furnished by, and partly 
stolen from, the nation of which they were citi- 
zeQB, to capture one of the nation's depots of 



arms, for the purpose of turning its contents 
agaiast the nation's life, and at the same time 
to protest innocence of any knowled^je or thought 
o*" any such devilish scheme, was certainly one of 
the most daring exhibitions of mingled folly, 
treason, and falsehood, that the history of civil- 
ized nations records. 

Had the Arsenal at that critical moment been 
under the command of one whose devotion | 
to the institution of Slavery had perverted 
his intellectual and moral faculties to a j 
belief in the damnable heresy of paramount ! 
allegiance to some slave State, no mortal ken > 
could have foretold the disaster to Missouri and j 
the Union, which would have followed with I 
lightning speed upon the establishment of i 
Camp Jackson, if, indeed, it had not preceded 
it. But, my friends, you, and I, and every in- 
habitant of cur city and State, ha?e reason for 
profound gratitude to Almighty God, that in his 
good providence an officer was there, whose alle- 
giance to his country was not perverted by the 
miserable fooleries of State rights, whose eagle 
vision p'erced through every traitorous dis- 
guise, whose bravery was equal to every emer- 
gency, and whose stern and steady adherence to 
duty defied all blandishments and all opposi- 
tion. Let us bow with profound reverence at 
the name and memory of Nathaniel Lton ! 
[Great applause, and three cheers.] Brief as was 
his career in the fiery scenes of this satanic re- 
bellion, it was illustrious in his steadfast devo- 
tion to the flag of his country, brilliant in his 
achievements under its resplendent folds, and 
glorious in its termina'ion on one of the con- 
secrated fields of America's bloody conflict 
for her life. No brighter name will emerge from 
the smoke and tumult of this awful strife— no 
nobler record will be transmitted from this evil 
day to our posterity, reading the luminous his- 
tory of America's triumph over her intestine 
foes, than that which tells that Lyon gave his 
life for, and in his will bequeathed all his estate 
to, his country ! [Loud and continued ap- 
plause.] 

But let us not forget the " nmligmint gpirih " 
who "determined that Camp Jackson should 
be attacked, and the citizen-soldiery taken pris- 
oners of war." They, too, deserve our grateful 
remembranee. To their honor be it said, that 
if they were malignant, it was only, against the 
enemies of their country, of their race, and of 
liberty. [Applause.] St. Louis may well be 
proud of such spirits, as all traitors have reason 
to fear them. Could this fiendish rebellion have 
been everywhere confronted in its inception by 
such, its life would have been short, and its de- 
struction swift and sure.* 

•Since tlip ilrlivery.il' this Oration, 1 have loarnott 
that the oniission to ni.-niicn bii luimc. ;iiiy or Hic par- 



Nor let us be unmindful of the officers and 
soldiers, suddenly called and promptly rallying 
to the defense of their country's flag, who stood 
in stern array around Camp Jackson to en- 
force their Chiei 's demand for its surrender. 
Who were they ? Whence came they ? 
Almost to a man thev were our 
own fellow-citizens of St. T^uis, and 
volunteers for their country's defense, with 
hardly a battalion of regular troops among 
them. But " nine-tenths of them were born 
under a foreign flag, and had grown up ack- 
nowledging allpgiance to the worst and most 
despotic governments ofEurop";" and were tknj 
to be the instruments of " the degradation of ci- 
tizens as loyal to the flag of the Union, as re- 
spectable in every sense, as brave and chivalric, 
as Captain Lyon, or any one of his advisers ? " 
[Laughter.] My friends, I cannot stop to dis- 
cuss relative terms of commendation or re- 
proach. Enough, for shame, that Americans by 
birth were false to their country and its flag; 
enough, for rejoicing and pride, that Americans 
by adoption were true to both. The former, 
though my brother by blood, is my enemy, and I 
am his; the latter, though an alien by birth, be- 
comes my brother by the holier tie of a common 
devotion to our noble country. [Continued 
pplause.] All honor, then, s; y 1, to the volun- 
teer rank and file of the captors of Camp Jackson, 
and to the gallant officers under whom they 
marched, on the 10th of May, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-one. [Three cheers. Wild applause.] 

I suppose, my friends, that I might here close 
my words, without seeming to fail in a due per- 
formance of the service assigned me. But my 
sense of duty does not so permit. Bear with 
me, then, yet a little longer— [Cries of "go on."] 
— while I present what seems to me a fit con- 
clusion of this commemorative address. 

You have listened to the history connected 
with Camp Jackson : let us now endeavor, with 
firm hand and steady heart, to portray the nig- 
nificance of Camp Jackson. It had an origin 
and a meaning, which no citizen of Missouri 
should tail to see and comprehend ; and I should 

Ill's \vl;o wiM'O sti:4iii:il i/i'il as '■ ni.iliiriiant spirits," has 
been iilpjectcil to hy I ri emls ol those part ins. I I'eel ron- 
lirlenl that no one of llie s;entlen)en in i|uestion woiikl 
eoiisiiler tliat in.iiistieo liad been done liira hy llie omis- 
sion; and miKli more do I feel assured that no one of 
tlieni would believe nie eapahle, of intentionally with- 
holding! the just need ol praise due him for his i)art in 
the important transaet ions I was reviewing. The simple 
and only reason why 1 nnmril no one but the lamented 
liVON was, tliat, as the whole responsibility of the 
oci-asion, to Government, people, and history, ri'sted 
on him alone, so lie alone was entitled to the credit of 
leading on the aehievemeul . This view of the matter 
was suggested tome, while preparing the Oration, by 
a gentleman who lield an important piisilion, both advi- 
sory and e.xecutive. near the person of LvON, before 
ami at the time of the rapture. It ueemed to me, not 
only magnanimous, hut .iust, and I acted upon it in fra- 
ming this passage of the discourse. 



lU 



consider my duty unperformed, if 1 omitted to 
exhibit that origin and meaning; and that I 
ought to be branded as craven, if 1 shrunk from 
the effort to impress upon the minds of others 
the immovable convictions which have sunk, 
unsought and unforced, into my own. 

Camp Jackson was not a mere manifestation 
of insurrectionary spirit against the Constitu- 
tion and Government of the Union. That Con- 
stitution had brought only blessings to the citi- 
zen-soldiers there assembled— the hand of that 
Government had rested oo them, only with a pa- 
ternal touch. Not oce of them could probably 
have been lured or forced into a revolt 
against the latter, for the sole purpose of 
resisting its authority; much less into an 
assault upon the former, wantonly to 
destroy it. To assume the possibility 
of either, would be to pronounce them born 
devils, intent, for its own sake, on a work of de- 
struction, such as the universe never saw at- 
tempted since Lucifer struck at the throne of 
God. No : they were moved by a far different 
spirit, and were bent upon an object, whiah 
could be attained only by the overthrow of both 
Government and Constitution, and therefore 
they were ready to assail both. Let me unfold 
that object, in the light of a brief historical re- 
view of what has been done in the name of Mis- 
souri, in regard to the institution of Slavery. 

As you are all aware, Missouri was brought 
into the family of the Union through a great 
conflict, growing out of her being a slave-hold- 
ing State. The ferment attending; that event led 
to the incorporation in her Constitution of pro- 
visions intended to fasten Slavery upon her per- 
manently, and to preclude the agitation by her 
people, at any after period, of the question of its 
removal from her limits. The Constitution pro- 
vided thus : 

"Tbe General Assembly shall Lave no power to pass 
laws— 

" Firai, For the emancipation of slaves, without the 
consent of their owners, or without paying them, before 
such emancipation, a full equivalent for such slaves so 
smancipated ; and, 

" Seronrf, To p 'event fcoimyitZe eniici-ants to this State, or 
actual settlers therein, from brini;inK from any of the 
Ui ited States, or from any of their Territiries, such per- 
sons as may there be deemed to be slaves, so Iouk as any 
persons ofth^tame description are allowetl to be held as 
slaves by the laws of this State." 

Under the influence of these provisions, and 
of a large immigration from other slave States, 
Slavery remained predominant in Missouri, and 
no attempt was made to lead her people to con- 
sider whether it was their interest to retain it. 
\k the progress of years the political power of 
Slavery began to develop itself in the country. 
From standing on the defensive, it assumed the 
aggressive, in connection with the question of 
its extension, with special reference to the out- 



lying Territories of the Union. The right of 
Congress to pass any law prohibiting it there, 
came to be questioned, after an acquiescence in 
it, in every section, for many years. In 1S49, the 
Lpgislature of this State under the lead of the 
sime Claiborne F. Jackson, from whose 
deeds as Governor we have so deeply 
suffered, passed a series of " Eesolutions on 
the guhject of Slavery," ever since known 
by his name; in which the ground was assumed 
that "at'y organization of the territorial gov- 
ernments, excluding the citizens of any part of 
the Union from removing to such territories 
with their property, would be an exercise of 
power, by Congress, inconsistent with the spirit 
upon which our Federal compact was based, in- 
sulting to the sovereignty and dignity of the 
States thus affected, calculated to alienate one 
portion of the United States from another, and 
tending ultimately to disunion;" and in con- 
nection with this avowal was one more signifi- 
cant, concerning the relations of Missouri to 
the other slave States, in these terms : 

"That in the event of the passage of any act of Con- 
gress conflicting with the principles herein expressed, 
JUiasovri will be found in hearty co-operation with the slavehold- 
ing States, in such measures cw ma?/ he deemed necessary for 
our miilnal protection against the encroachments of Northern fan 
naticism." 

In the light of subsequent history, we see now, 
what Missouri's great Senator, Thomas H. Ben- 
ton, saw then — that those resolutions were a part 
of the scheme of disunion, which was then shap- 
ing itself in the South, and was so clearly seen 
by Mr. Caluoln to be approaching its execu- 
tion, that in commenting, in the Senate, upon 
President Taylor's reference to tne Union, in 
his first and only annual message, he used these 
noted words : 

'•It (the Union) cannot then be saved by eulogies upon 
it, however splendid or numerous. The cry of 'Union, 
Union, thet/lorious Union." can no more prevent disunion, 
than the cry of 'Bealth, Beallh, glorious Jlcalth !' on the 
part of the physician can save a patient from dying that is 
lying dangerously ill." 

From the date of tbe adoption of the Jackson 
Eesolutions, but more especially from that of 
the subsequent defeat of Col. Benton's re-elec- 
tion to the Senate, at the expiration of a contin- 
uous service there of thirty years, Missouri 
seemed bound hand and foot to the South and to 
Slavery forever. And as if to make this doubly 
sure, the Legislature, eight years later, sought to 
crush the idea of EmajicipatUm — then beginning 
to find expression in our midst — by the adoption 
of another resolution, which, with its preamble, 
was as follows : 

"Where.^s, Circumstances have rendered it necessary, 
and it is due to the constituent body of our fellow-citi- 
zens of the State ef Missouri, that the Legislature of the 
State should give an imequivocal expression of opinion 



11 



in regard to the subject of the emancipation ()f the slaveg 
ill the State : 

•' Be it there/ore resolved by l/ie Gmeral A.ixi-mhly of the Salute 
of Missouri, That the emancipation o( the slaves helii as 
property in this Slate woulU be not only inipraciicible, 
but that any movement having such an object in view 
would he inf xpediont, impolitic, unwise, and unjust, and 
should, in the opinion of this General Assembly, be dis- 
countenanced by the people of the State." 

This resolution was passed in the Senate by a 
vote of 25 to 4, and in the House of Representa- 
tives by a vote of 107 to 12 ; six to one in the 
former — nine to one in the latter ! It was inten- 
ded to throttle Emancipation in its cradle, and 
to rivet and clinch Slavery upon our people with 
an eternal clamp. 

Here, my friends, I cannot resist the impulse 
to digress for a moment, to bring into view and 
proclaim the names of those four Senators 
and twelve Representatives, who, against sucb 
enormous odds, bravely wrote down on the 
records of their State their dissent from that 
sweeping blast against Emancipation. With 
two exceptions, they represented St. Louis 
County in that General Assembly. Ijet no frail 
memory of the people forget to honor the deed, 
or cease to bear in recollection that it was done 
by Senators Henry T. Blow, Robert Holmes, 
Charlks S. Eannells, and John D. Stevknson, 
and by Representatives Barton Able, Thomas J. 
Albrioht, B. Gratz Brown, 1'atrick E. Bcrke, 
Henry A. Clover, Franklin A. Dick, Benjamin 
Fabrar, Samuel H. Gardner, Jesse Jenninos, 
of Taney, Madison Miller, James 0. Sitton, of 
Gasconade, and Lewis Winkelmaiek. [Applause.] 

Resuming the thread of history, we find tnn 
on the 12th of January, ISO 1, twenty-three days 
after South Carolina's ordinance of secession 
was passed, and while the roar of the secession 
torsade was resounding through the whole 
South, a meeting was held at the Court House 
in this city, which will be remembered as amcg 
the largest ever seen in this community. Its 
great magnitude, the expression it made con- 
cerning matters of infinite importance at that 
critical juncture, and the unhappy influence it 
exerted throughout this State, entitle it to a 
prominent position in the history of that period. 
It was heralded as a Union, meeting; but God 
save us from such Unionism as it inculcated ! 
Passing by, as mere chati', its empty professions 
of attachment to the Union, it is suflicient 
for the present occasion to exhume from 
its dead and buried proceedings a single 
resolution, as indicative of a then living and 
unshaken purpose to hold Missouri fast to Sla- 
very, even if it led her into secession. No one 
who was known or suspected to be in favor of 
Coercion, as it was then opprobriously called,— 
that is, of sustaining the Government and Con- 
Btitation, by every possible means and to the 



utmost extremity, against the destruction then 
threatening them, — was permitted to participate 
in the private preparations for the action of that 
meeting : all of which were arranged in secret, 
by men whose deep and unscrupulous disloyalty 
afterwards became manifest; some of whom, 
early in the rebellion, betrayed their country's 
cause for that of Slavery, by taking up arms in 
the rebel service, where, if yet living, they are 
still engaged. It is not, therefore, to be won- 
dered at, that in such hands, the meeting be- 
came — what it never would have become, if the 
people of St. Louis had been advised of its real 
design — a powerlul instrument of traitorous 
mischief in Missouri, i'low it became so, you 
will have no difficuhy iu perceiving when I re- 
call to your recollection that one of its resolu- 
tions was the following : 

" That the possession of slave property is a constitu- 
tional right, and as such ought to b« ever recognized by 
the Federal Governmeut. That it the Feaeral Govern- 
ment shall fail and refuse lo secure this right, the Southei n 
Sl'ileji ihouldbe found nnital in ils deftnae, in which tnt 

Missouri will shauE the uooioion duties and 

CuMMON DANGER Of THE SOUTH." 

This was, in etiect, a revival in St. Louis of the 
Jackson Resolutions of 1S49. It was the very em- 
bodiment of Southern sophistry, imperiousnese, 
and treason. It opens with the utterly unfounded 
and fallacious dogma, that the possession of 
slave property is a " conditutionaL riijht," if 
reference is made to the Constitution of the 
United States; for that nowhere conftrs, but only 
recoynizfs, that right. It proceeds to declare the 
obligations of the Federal Government to recog- 
nize that right ; but as if, on " sober second 
thought," that was not enough, it next impliedly, 
but with all the force of a direct affirmation, de- 
clares the duty of that Government " to seeare 
this right ;" when no man lives who can find in 
the National Constitution one word eujoiuing 
such a duty, except in regard to fugitive slaves; 
to which it is impossible reference could have 
been intended, because there then stood upon 
the statute books of the nation the Fugitive 
Slave Act of 1850, which had been prepared for, 
and dictated to. Congress, by the most radical, 
e.xac.iug, and overbearing champions of Slavery 
that the Southern States had ever sent to that 
body. And, finally, it closes with an undoubted 
committal of Missouri to secession, if the Na- 
tional Government refused or tailed to perform 
this dutyv which it was under no constitutional 
obligation to perlorm, except in the single par- 
ticular of fugitive slaves, and for which, beyond 
that point, it had no semblance of constitutional 
power ! And this is what the people of St. Louis 
were by adroit management led to say: but 
what they never would have said, had thev in 
any degree understood the plot then thickening 
around them. 



12 



We need not be surprised to find that 
immediately after this demonstration in 
St. Louis, the Legislature of this State, 
in February, 1361, by a solemn resolution, — 
prompted, no doubt, as it was officially approved, 
by Governor Jackson, and adopting the policy 
virhich his resolutions, twelve years before, had 
foreshadowed — bound Missouri, so far as that 
body could bind it, to revolt against the (4ov- 
ernment of the United States and to disunion. 
Attend to this last expression of Missouri's 
Legislative traitors agaiD=t their country, for 
the sake of Slavery : 

" Whereas, We Lave learnea, with profound regret, 
that the States ot New York and Ohio have recently ten- 
dered men and nionty to the President of the United 
States, for the avowed purpose of coercing certain sov- 
ereign States of the South, which have seceded, or may 
secede from the Federal Union, into obedience to the 
Federal Goveruiuenl. ; therefore, 

" Jit^solvttl by the JJouse of 2i'^Testntalivi», the Senate con- 
curriny therein, Tfcat we regard with the utmost abhor- 
rence the doctrine of coercion, as indicated by the 
action of the States aforesaid, believing that the same 
Would retult in civil war, and forever destroy 
any hope of reconstructing the Federal Union. So 
believing, we deem it our duty to declare, that if there is 
any invasion of the SLAVE STATES, for the purpose ot 
carrying such doctrine iLto eflect, it is the opinion of thi^ 
General Assembly that the people of Missouri will in- 
stantly rally on tbe side ot their Southern brethn n, to re- 
sist the invaders at all hazart's and to the last ex- 
tremity." 

Thus ends the historical review, which was 
necessary to the proper understanding, in this 
day and in the future, of the origin 
and signiflcance of Camp Jackson. In the 
light of the facts, as presented, 1 reiterate, that 
the formation of that camp proceeded from flo 
mere hostility to the Constitution and Govern- 
ment of the Union; nor did it spring from any 
mischievous impulse for the mere sake of mis 
chief; nor did it express any f'crm of passionate 
popular outbreak ; nor yet was it the offspring 
of any need or purpose to redress any grievance, 
or to avenge any wrong done in the name or by 
the authority of the United States, to the State 
of Missouri, or to any part of her people. 
In the name of Heaven, then, it may 
be asked, if it proceeded from none 
of these, what did it proceed from? My friends, 
look at the facts— at the formal declarations of 
the Legislature of Missouri and the words of 
Governor Jackson, as 1 have laid them before 
you; at his refusal of a single soldier to defend 
the Union against the rebellious and savage as- 
sault of the aristocracy of Southern Slavery, 
while, at the same instant, he called the militia 
of Missouri to arms ; at the steady and over- 
bearing effort of forty years to tie Missouri and 
Slavery together in indestructible bonds; 
at the solemn resolve tnat she should, in 
spite of her own declared will, make 



common cause with the South, on the 
ground that '' the dentiny of the slave- 
holding States of this Union is one and the same:" 
look at these things, and say if in the whole 
wide field of human research or conjecture, you 
can find any other origin of Camp Jackson than 
in THK iNSTiTunoN OF Slaveky— [iipplausc] — any 
other significance than that of a fierce and de- 
liberate purpose to join the Southern aristocracy 
in i^^heir hellish attempt to strike down our glo- 
rioHS heritage of Freedom, for the sake of rear 
ing over its ruins a bloody, aggressive, and re- 
lentless Empire of Slavkry ! [Continued ap 
plause.] This great truth concerning Southern 
treason should never for one moment be lost 
sight of. It struggled into the view of the 
people of Missouri through the heavy clouds of 
life-long association with, and attachment to, 
the " peculiar institution;" but it has emerged, 
at last, into the clear open sky, and shines into 
every habitation where Slavery is not enshrined 
as a household god, and into every mind which 
has not become hopelessly abject in its devotion 
to that god. The scales have fallen from the 
eyes of tens of thousands of that people — nay, 
from those of a vast majority — and they see, 
with startled gaze, that they have nursed in 
their bosom the only viper that could ever have 
inflicted upon them such deadly wounds, as 
have caused them for two long and terrible 
years to bleed at every pore. And they 
will never unlearn that truth. Every day dis- 
seminates it more widely, and makes it more 
powerful. As well attempt to roll back the 
Mississippi to its source, as to stem the mighty 
swell of that enfranchised opinion, which, 
throughout Missouri, presses home upon Slavery 
all the woes and tears, the ravages and dismay, 
which have made those two years hideous and 
insufferable to her people. 

And, praised be God ! with the growth of that 
liberated opinion has come the high and steady 
purpose that Missouri shall be liberated 
from her long thraldom to Slavery. [Rapturous 
applause.] We have borne and suffered enough 
from it and for it. Her people do not now be- 
lieve — even if they ever did — what their Legis- 
lature declared in 1857, that "the emancipation 
of the slaves would be impracticable;" much 
less do they oelieve that " any movement having 
such an object in view, would be inexpedient, 
impolitic, unwiee, and unjust, and should be 
discountenanced." on the contrary, they are 
resolved not only to make such a movement, 
but to make it so that it shall never be unmade. 
[Cries of "good, good"] 'I'he power of their 
will miikes itself felt in all places, high and low. 
Our Provisional (iovernor, who open- 
ed his Administration, in August, 1861, 



13 



with the proclamation that his aelection for 
that ofiSce would " eatisfy all that no counten- 
ance would be aflurded to any schkme or to any 
coNDccT calculated in any degree to interfere 
with the institution of slavery existing in the 
State, and that to tde vbry utmost extent of 
Executive power, that institution would bb 
PROTBCTKD," now calls the State Convention 
together, " to consult and act upon the subject 
of the EiiANCiPATioN OF SLAVES," becausB — and 1 
thank him for the change ! — he considers it " ol 
the highest importance to the interests of the 
State that some scheme of Emancipation 
should be adopted." [Applause.] And mark 
you, when that body assembles, there will be no 
more '•killing Emancipation at the first pop!" 
[Laughter and applause.] The subject will be 
discussed in all its bearings, freely and fear- 
lessly; and my confidence is that "acme scheme 
of Emancipation ?fjW be adopted." And yet it 
may be defi ated there; but woe to them by whom 
It is defeated. [Great applause.] The people 
will not quietly submit to the thwarting of their 
will in 1863, by a body elected in 1861. [Ap- 
plause. ] if this Convention falls them, they will 
have another that will not. The time has gone by 
when a batch of leaders can control them on 



this subject. The cenviction is universal, 
that there is no more peace, and consequently 
no more prosperity, for our State, while Slavery 
sits firm ou our soil, to kindle anew every day 
the fires of civil strife, and invite perpetual in- 
cursions from the South. [Vociferous applause. ] 
They have been compelled to do their own fight- 
ing, and hereafter they will do their own voting, 
too. Let him who dares disregard their will 
concerning Emancipation ! The Car of Jugger 
naut never rolled over its self-immolating devo- 
tee with more deadly crush, than will the public 
opinion of Missouri over every man that ventures 
that experiment. ["Good."] Let men idolize and 
cling to Slavery as they please, Emancipation in 
Missouri is already decreed : the Convention has 
only to record the decree. [Loud and continued 
applause.] Not by some feeble scheme, winding 
up in the Twentieth Century ; but by some wise, 
equitable, and well-considered plan, worthy of hu- 
manity and of statesmanship, which shall bring 
to thin generation, through Emancipation, some 
recompense for the horrible ills it has endured 
through Slavery. Let this be done, and, with 
God's blessing, all will yet be well with us and 
with our children ! [Loud and long continued 
applause.] 



REPLY TO THE MISSOURI REPUBLICAN. 



Mr. N. Paschall, Editor of the Missouri Rfjnihlican : 

SiK : You would hardly expect, nor would the 
community, that the bitter personal attack upon 
me in the leading editorial article of the A'epuli- 
tican of Wednesday, should pass unnoticed by 
me. I shall notice it and you, in such manner as 
duty to the jjullic seems to me to require ; not be- 
cause I have the least need to vindicate myself be- 
fore the people of St. Louis from such aspersions 
as those with which you have deliberately sev- 
ered the ties of many years' association and 
friendship. Though 1 may have no "celebrity," 
and though for whatever of "notoriety" I pos- 
sess, I may, as you claim, be indebted to the 
Minsuuri J^ti'ullicau, you will probably find 
that I have a foundation oi churad<r here, which 
will withstand this assault, or any that the A'e- 
puhlica?i may hereafter make. If I have not, 
truly the best years of my life have been lived 
here in vain. 

In one respsct. Sir, I shall not imitate your 
course toward me. You denounce me for the 
Oration which I delivered last Monday, 
but do not publish it, so that your read- 
ers may judge between us. i'ou did nut 
rtlinh the renuscUatiim there of the Jiepuhli can's 
hidoi!i,ichiuh jHetity t(i ti-vth requirtd. In this 
reply 1 shall not follow your example, by with- 
holdiag from those who may read my words the 
opportunity at the same time of reading yours. 
I have no record which 1 tear should be brought 
to light, nor do 1 shrink from telling the world 
what is said against me. Vou shall, therefore, 
have all the benefit here of every word of it. 
Here it is : 



"MR. CHARLES P. DRAKE. 

"For whatever ot position this gentleman 
may have in this community, we think it may 
safely be assumed he is indebted to the sustain- 
ing influence and exertions of this paper in his 
behalf; and hi nee the public who are alive to 
this fact, will be surprised at the bitterness of 
invective in which he indulged in his Oration 
at Camp Jackson grounds last Monday. We are 
not going to open the wounds scarcely cica- 
trized, nor to discuss the propriety of the mili- 
tary movements originated by Mr. (now Gen.) 
F. r. Blair, whose name, strangely enough, was 
scarcely heard in the proceedings ot Monday, 
for the simple reason that he is not now Radical 
enough for the time, and is in the field figbtini? 
the battles of his country, while those who are 
politically opposed to him are using Ui>i thunder 
to destroy him. When this civil war has been 
brought to an end, and time and history have 
done their office in recording all the facts con- 
nected with the rebellion, and the incidents 
preceding and gi owing out of It — when to each 
party and every individual engaged in it, wheth- 
er high or low, in civil or military life— is assign- 
ed his particular place in the grand drama which 
has convulsed the Union — those who come after 
us will be better prepared to understand the 
motives and the actions of men. Here we leave 
this branch of the subject, only to recur to Mr. 
Drake himselt.. 'ihis gentleman, as we have 
said above, is more inaebted to us for the noto- 
riety— it would be a misnomer to call it celebrity 
—which he enjoys, than to all other causes com- 
bined. When those who are now petting him 



14 



were cursing him, and heaping epithets of the 
most opprobrious character upon him, in the 
spirit of a persistent friendship we came to his 
rescue and defended him from their reproaches. 
Whenever an opportunity (wfifered to advance his 
interests, none were more prompt to do it. Con- 
fessedly the most unpopular man ia St. Louis, po- 
litically, professionally, and socially,thi8 did not 
prevent us from interposing our influence in his 
behalf, and when, three or four years ago, he 
was, by our assistance, elected to the Legisla- 
ture—the only place of trust he ever acquired 
directly from the people — he had not been in his 
seat a month before he broke down under the 
weight of his own measures of social reform, 
and he WAS only ioleratfil for the remainder of 
the session. The Democrat, now fulsome in its 
praise of him, then ridiculed and denounced 
him unmercifully. The German press, now re- 
ferring to him complacently, never alluded 
to his course in the Legislature except in lan- 
guage of abuse to which there was no 
license. Those with whom he is now 
hob-nobbing, and is apparently on.the^best terms 
of social intercourse, were then held up by 
him to public ridicule for their Sunday diver- 
sions, and their wives and daughters presented 
in most revolting situations. The debates on 
this subject between Mr. Drake .md Mr. Kribben, 
can hardly be forgotten by those who read them at 
the time. That session of the legislature unhorsed 
Mr. D. as a politician forever, and although he 
has since sought place, even that of Senator in 
Congress, nobody has yet been lound willing to 
hazard his reputation by putting him in nomina- 
tion. Changing from party to party until he has 
run through the whole catalogue acd become a 
Charcoal, his accession has always been the sig- 
nal for defeat and disaster, and the Charcoals 
themselves may well tremble for their success 
hereafter. Faithless to his friends, it is not sur- 
prising that distrust cf his motives should fol- 
low his every movement. Disappointed in 
all the aspirations of a selfish ambition — a fail- 
ure iu everything — it is not to be Wondered at that 
he has hardened his heart, and become callous 
to all the impulses of a high-minded gentleman 
and Christian. We quit him here." 

Can it be, Mr.Paschall, that no sense of shame, 
no twinge of conscience, disturbed you while you 
penneil those ungracious words ? Is it possible 
that you did not perceive how open they laid 
you to retort? Is it. indeed, true that your 
usual good sense has, in your advanced years, 
forsaken you ? I will not bandy epithets with 
you ; but 1 may be permitted respectfully to 
suggest, that if that editorial indicates the 
amount of candor, truthfulness, and sagacity, 
which is hereafter to characterize the i'i'<y'(/i'/,zV«?^, 
it were well for those interested in its publica- 
tion to consider the expediency of your retire- 
ment to the shades of private life. The loyal 
citizens of St. Louis have long had a very defi- 
nite opinion on that point, which may have 
found some little expression at Camp Jackson 
last Monday. Perhaps that was the sting of that 
day to you, Mr. Faschall. 

You assume in the outset, that the public 
will " be surprised at the bitterness of 
invective in which 1 indulged in my Oration 
at Camp Jackson grounds last Monday." 
What " bitterness of invective" did 1 indulge 
in there, Mr. I'ascuall? Agiiinst the ^insmri 
Republican, or you, or any one connected with 
it? Not a word of such can be fouud in the 
Oration. 1 mentioned your paper historically 
and respectfully ; my invective was against the 
traitors in Camp Jackson two years ago. That 



invective you resent. Do you thereby intend to 
affirm, or admit, that there was at that time in 
Camp Jackson any one connected with the Re- 
pullican who deserved that title ? 1 did not so 
affirm ; but have you not impliedly dou« so, by 
resenting my invective against the traitors 
there? Or do vou mean to be understood, at 
this day and in this city, as defending those 
traitors still, as you did immediately after their 
capture ? If you do, 1 can only pity the infatu- 
ation which still binds you to an iguoble and 
desperate cause. 

Whether 1 am " indebted to the sustaining 
influence and exertions " of the Jtepvhlica7i " for 
whatever position I may have in this commun- 
ity," I leave to that community to say. I have 
endeavored to lead in St. Louis an upright life. 
If, in the estimation of her people, 1 have done 
so, 1 needed not the Mepuhlicaii' s " influence 
and exertions," or those of any other paper, to 
give me "position;" if I have not, and the 
fieptiblioan, notwithstanding, wielded its in- 
fluence to give me "position" of which 1 was 
unworthy, what shall be said of the Re/ruhlican, 
and of you, its editor ? But, Sir, no human be- 
ing in this city believes, or ever will believe, 
that your paper has given me the stand- 
ing I now occupy, whatever it may be, in this 
city. All 1 have gained here, socially or 
professionally, 1 have labored for through many 
years of toilsome devotion to duty. For you to 
claim to have given me position here, only 
makes people who know you and me laugh at 
you, Mr. Pascuall. 

But, sir, when and where were " the sustain- 
ing influence and exertions " of your paper 
put forth on my behalf for 7ny sake ? Acknowl- 
edging many acts of kindness received from the 
jRe/juhlicau, 1 affirm that all tue influence it 
ever exerted to give me position, was exerted 
that your own views and plans in regard to pub- 
lic atl'airs, and the prosperity of the paper you 
conducted, might be better promoted. You sus- 
tained me as long as I sustained you — not a 
moment before, not a moment after; and you 
did it in order more eflectually to sustain your- 
self. For your paper, as many well know. 
1 have, first and last, performed many 
months of gratuitous, exhausting, and, to 
you, ever acceptable labor, of which the 
world knew nothing, except as it appeared in 
your editorial columns, and augmented their in- 
fluence over your readers. Tnat those labors 
were not without direct and lasting benefit to 
you, no man living knows better than yourself j 
that their benefit to me, if any, was only inci- 
dental, never pecuniary, no man knows better 
than 1 do. If ihe lieinihllcaii helped to give me 
position, 1 helped to give it position. You profit 
substantially every day by my past efforts on 
your behalf, put forth at one period, as you well 
know, when you were reduced to positive bank- 
ruptcy; 1 profit not one penny by the position 
which you imagine you have given me. 

You claim a credit to yourself, in no sense 
your due, when you use the following words : 

" When those who are now petting him were 
cursing him, and heaping epithets of the most 
opprobrious character upon him, in the spirit of 
a persistent friendship we came to his rescue, 
and defended him from their reproaches." 

No such state of things has at any time 
existed during my residence in this city, 
except in connection with my service in the 
Legislature ; and my memory fails to recall one 
line in the Rtpidilican deleudiug me then. You 
are not accustomed, Mr. Paschall, as this com- 
munity knows, to espouse the cause of a falling 



15 



man, or to identify your paper with an " un- 
horsed politiciau." If, however, you came to 
my rescue at that period, it was not lecause you 
remembered kindly that I had, to the extent of 
mv ability, come to your aid in the days of your 
adversity, nor because you cared a straw 
what befell »i.e ; but because it suited your 
purpose as a partisan editor, to sustain one 
who belonged to your own party, and whose 
overthrow could confer no benefit upon that 
party, but perhaps injury. 

But in ppite of all the position ywu have con- 
ferred upon me, it seems that I am " confessed- 
ly the most unpopular man in St. Lous, politi- 
cally, protessionally, and personally!" 
How poorly, Mr. Paschall, that tact, if 
true, speaks for your influence nd 
that of your paper in this city ! Is it possible 
that all your efforts to write me ♦///, have only 
resulted in writing me down 1 If so, am 1 under 
obligations to you for your ** persistent friend- 
ship?" But you did not talk or think that way, 
when, in 1859, in order to secure a Democratic 
triumph, you induced me, against my inclina- 
tion, and to the serious injury of my private 
interests, to suffer myself to be announced as a 
candidate for the Legislature, only four days 
before the election ; much less when I beat my 
competitor more than 1,800 votes ! Still, it may 
be true now ; and if it is, 1 can only say that at 
no period of my life has popularity been my 
aim. I desire the iapprobation of my fellow- 
citizens; but only sm far an it may be eirned by 
an honest and steady adherence to what I be- 
lieve to be right, regardless of personal conse- 
quences to myself; and 1 think the people of St. 
Louis [helie'ue this of me, whether T am popular 
with them or not. Do they believe so of you, 
Mr. Paschall ? 

Prominent among your flings at me is, that 
" changing from party to party until T have run 
through the whole catalogue, and become a 
Charcoal, my access'on has always been the 
signal ibr defeat and disaster." If this be 
true, Mr. Paschall, pray how has it been with 
you and the A'cn'/hl'cafi f We \- ere togetlher 
Sir, from ISIU to" 1861. Were the defeats and 
disasters of the parties with which we were 
connected, and for which we jointly labored, 
during those twenty-seven years, u^l owing to 
me, a private citizen, and none to you, the edi- 
tor of a widely-circulated and powerful journal ? 
You did not say or think this, in August, 1S(>0, 
when you introduced my Victoria speech in fa- 
vor of Mr. Douglas to your renders, as the very 
ablest campaign document ever produced in 
this country, and announced that you would 
print 50,000 copies of it, in pamphlet form, for 
sale; nor in November following, when, as I Ite- 
lieve, largely through the instrumentality of 
that speech, Missouri was found to be the only 
State in the Union that gave an electoral vote to 
Mr. Dol'c.las, except the fractional vote he re- 
ceived in New Jersey. 

In fact, Mr. Paschall, it is only since Decem- 
ber, 1800, that you have discovered my un- 
popularity. On the ;U8t of that month — as 1 
showed in the Oration last Monday — you shocked 
the loyal portion of this community beyond ex- 
pression, by committing the Jitimliliaiii. to the 
cause ol Secession. No man in St. Louis felt 
the shock more keenly than I di<l ; for, for 
nearly two months before the Presidential elec- 
tion in November, your editorial columns re- 
ceived almost daily irom mo contributions 
attacking Secession and defending the Union, 
into which I threw all the power of my mind, all 



the vigor of my pen, and all the force of the un- 
dying love for the Union, which then, as now, 
ni;ed my whole nature. And more than this. The 
Victoria speerth. which you extolled so highly, 
exposed in advance the very schpine of disunion 
whieh Stnith (Carolina carriod out on the 20th of 
December. In the fac of all this, on thf» 3l8t of 
that month, the litpiihliatv stood before the 
world the advocate of the secession of Missouri ! 
I felt at the time almost as if bell had yawned 
before me. From that day our paths have di- 
verged, never, I suppose, to meet again. You 
took your stand against your country — I took 
mine for it. You struck hands with traitors— I 
have fallen into association with those, between 
whom and myself there had previouply been 
sharp political antagonism. I have not stopped 
for an instant to inquire whether the Ddimcraf 
had "ridiculed and denounced" me, nor 
whether the fterman press had used toward me 
"language of abupe." All I sought to 
know was, where the friends of my country and 
the defenders of the Union could be found ; and 
never, since tbst day, have I found or heard of 
one coiipef'ted with the editorial management of 
the iii^/riililiain. Nor have 1 ever stopped to in- 
quire whether 1 am popular with the Union men 
of St. ' ouis. Having never asked, and never 
intending to ask, the least favor at their bands, 
or those of the people of Missouri,— i^^fw/v f» 
j)t>.cially FALSE that J hare tmiiiht tufm Soiati/rin 
Congress, — the qaestiou of my popularity is the 
very last that has engaged my attention. I am 
not, however, unaware that with traitors and 
Mi.i-t'ivri Refiuhiican Unionists T am unpopular; 
and God forbid it should ever be otherwise ! 
Such unpopularity I joylully accept, as the 
highe'^t evidence that T have done something for 
my country — the richest treasure of my remain- 
ing years, the most precious legacy 1 can be- 
queath to my children. Can you, dare you, Mr. 
Paschall. say as much of the popularity you re- 
ceive at their hands ? 

There was a wondrous temerity, as well as 
most egregious folly, in your attack upon me. 
You forgot that the record of the RejiuhJicau. 
since the :-;ist of December, 1860, is written in- 
delibly in the memory of the loyal people of St. 
Louis, and that my course during that period is 
well known to them. You forgot that not only 
did you on that day sound the first secession 
blast heard in Missouri, in response to South 
Carolina's fiendish invocation to the slave 
States ; but for months after that day, and until 
the apprehension of the suppression of the AV- 
;p»/?//?tv/// by militarv power overcame your real 
impulses, and compelled you to assume the 
mask of a thin and perfidious loyalty, thai sheet 
was the most artful and dangerous eui-my 
the National (Jovernment and the Union h;'.d in 
the whole Valley of the Mississippi. You for- 
got, what 1 do not forsjet, that its col- 
umns were loaded from day to day with 
everything, original and selected, which 
tendfd to impair the confidence of the 
people in the (lovernment, and weaken 
their atlachrneut for the Union and their faith 
in its triumph over its enemies. You fortrot 
that the frown of the Henvhlirnu was upon every 
man h^Iieved to be nnamditiifiuilhi loyal, while 
its smiles were radiant upon those known to be 
feeble and shakv Unionists, or traitors in heart; 
so that, at last, no man's repufafion fcr sincere 
and earnest loyalty survived your praise. You 
forgot that the Refyihlicau became the organ of 
every exaggerated complaint which open trai- 
tors or skulking bushwhackers and their friends. 



16 



throughout the State, wished to pour into tbe 
public ear, against the efiBcient action of 
ihe military torces. pursuing them to thehr 
overthrow. You forgot that the monster meet 
ing at the Court Kia^e in this city, oc 
the 12lh of January. ISC^'W^ich. with hol- 
low pretensions of Unionism, was in reality a 
i-ecessuyn, demonstration, was your work, called 
>)y you, managed by your influence, and glori- 
fied 1)V you in the kt/mhUcan. You forgot the 
A.'t7>"/''i((/«'.v denouncement and defiance of I'res 
ident Tiincoln's call, after the bombardment of 
Sumter, for 75,000 meo to suppress the rpbel- 
lion, vour commendation of Governor Jackson 
for his refusal of Missouri's (luota of lour regi- 
ments undfir that call, and your impudent de- 
^<5laration that the people of Mis^'ouri would in- 
dorse that refusal. You forgot that the Rt/'Mi- 
rati gave unmistakeable evidence of gratification 
at the Bull Run disaster to the army of Ibe 
Union. You forgot its insane fury over the sup- 
pre-ision, by military force, of that treasonable 
sheet, the Xissonri State Jmit-vaJ,. But why 
should 1 undertake to enumerate the atrocious 
sins of the Rei'vhHcan, since December, 1860. 
against the Constitution, the Union, and the 
CTOveruinent, as well as against loyalty, patriot- 
ism, and truth? Are they not history, which 
can never be erased ? Are they not held in pub- 
lic re'uenibrance, with a tenacity which only 
the lapse of many years can weaken ? 
'I'hey make such a record against you, 
Mr 1'aschall, and against the RejiMimn, as i 
would not have against me, for the payment 
down to-day, of a sum of money equal to the an- 
ticipited profits of the RepiMican, office for a 
hundred years to come. The thirty pieces of 
silvrr for which Judas Iscariot betrayed hie 
Lord, did not keep down the pangs of remorse, 
uoder which " he went and haugi.'d himself." 

I'bere is, however. Mr. Paschall, one sin lying 
at your door, which I owe it to the public and 
to the cause of historic truth to make a distinct 
mention of. In my address last Monday, I stated 
that 1 believed 1 was right in saying that tht 
leiter ot General b'rost to Governor Jacksop. 
which I then read, had never been published in 
the columns of the Hepuhlican. Your reporter, 
in his account of the proctedirgs on that day, 
said that statement was " at war with the truth 
of history — said letter having appeared in the 
columns of the Ue,)aihlimv on several occasions." 
It has since been stated to me, that duriig the 
late sespion of the liCgislalnre of this State, in 
Kehriiary perhaps, li. F. Wingatr, E^q incor- 
porated that letter in a speech hed<'liver<d there, 
which was published ill vour papor. If that in 
formation is correct, you areentitled to the ben- 
efit of it, su"'h ;is it is, and 1 give it to you here. 
Hut, !>ir, there is a wide ditt'erence between pub- 
lishing HU':h a document, as a matter of public 
iiilbrmiti.in, at t'^e time it comes to light, and 
|)ublishiug it in somebody's speech, niiiliteen 
Miout lis afterward. I charge you, Mr. I^aschall. 
wilh deliberately keeping that letter out of the 
/iV, ////^/iv///, as an item of information to ^qur 
readers, from the day it transpired to this, with 
the intention that th<*se who had read your 
vindication of Camp Jackson, in May, l.SGl 
should never learn through your aL'ency of the 
'.xiritence of a document, which proved th.u 
vindication false in its esseiitial features, a 
yon could not help knowing it to be when yi.M' 
wrote it. You will not forget, Sir, a cor versa 
tion on the street between vou and myself abou>. 
that letter, when it appeared in the other paper* 



of this city. I asked you why you did not pub- 
lish it in the Repuhlican ? You replied — '* 1 Jiave 
no quarret with Gen. Frod!" And when I urged 
that that was not the question, and that 
the letter ought to be published there, as an im- 
portant part of the hirtory of the day, you re 
plied again — " WW^. 1 </■ n 't like ihe way they g<>t 
poss^snon iif it .' " At;d thre33 were the reasons 
you assigned, with steady t.iC% for withhoMing 
from your readers, ro f.ir r? Tonr :ilf^nce could, 
all knowledge of \\\ux, dor...n'.''nt ! This single 
fact, sir, should dmu y.^ii>' pip^r xa ihfi eyes 
of all patriots and al! honrstmeDj a.^ I weilknow 
its promulgation will rxalt and gloiify ycu in 
those of all Copperheads atjd t.-aisors. 

And now, sir, in conclu?icn, 1 lecommend 
you to a more earful study oi your po^^ition 
and that of the RfpvhHcnn, in this (i;y arid 
State. Realize, if you can, fnat you are hrh on 
the down-hill, grade. The seceesiou cause, w-ljjch 
you espoused on the .^Ist of Dpcember, 1S60, and 
have never since, in heart, abandoned for a mo- 
ment, whatever may have been the outward seem- 
ing of your paper, isgoii'g down ilo'vu., down! 
and take heed that you do not go down with it ! 
You have not breathed one truly loyal breath, 
nwr has one truly loyal number of vour paner 
been published, since that day. Had justice 
been meted out to the Rei^'ulHotn, as it was to 
the Jourtial and the Iftrahi, it would long since 
have been suppressed, and yon, perhaps, again a 
bankrupt. You owe, this day, a lifelong debt 
of gratitude to the military authorities for their 
forbearance. You hive done more to excite and 
foster treason and disloyalty in Missouri, than 
any hundred men in it; for you governed an 
engine ot tremendous power. There is an im- 
measurable distance between the evil you have 
done, and the good you might have done, with 
it. Had you, after the election of Mr. Lincoln, 
kept the same high ground ot devotion to the 
Union, which you suffered me to take in your 
columns before that event, how noble and ex- 
alted would have been your positirn, how 
full of blessing to your country, and how 
much bloodshed would have been saved in Mis 
souri, whose stain, I greatly fear, is on //""/• 
skirts ! 

You, Mr. Paschall, have lorg wielded a po- 
tent influence in Missouri ; but. it can reach 
patriots no more. The tine is past when the 
Repiihlimn can write any loyal man down, or any 
disloyal man up. I neither fear its hostility 
nor jourt it.s favor. I vdl go oa jny >vay 
combating treason and disloyalty, traitors and 
Copperheads, false'^ood and hypocrisy, come 
what may to me. You may go on yours, de- 
nouncing me, and those like me in devotion to 
country; ignoring every noble development ol 
patriotism ; giving conspicuousnei^s t.n all in- 
sidious incitements to disloyalty ; striking at 
all who do not cling to Slavery in its damnable 
crusade against the Union and liberty ; chuck- 
ling over " the killing of Emancipation at the 
first pop ;" and sneering at every prayerful ap- 
peal of an ulllicted people to the Throne of Mercy 
for the overthrow of this savage rebellion: but 
all will come to an end ere long, and our respec 
tive records of life will be closed, and passed to 
the .ludgment seat on hiuh. Min**, I trust, will 
be that of one who strove with his best ability 
and truest heart to be a patriot. Have you no 
fears. Mr. Paschai.l. that yours may be that of 
aa able, wily, and unscrupulous traitor? 

C. D. DRAKE. 
St. Louis, May U, if^'i. 



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